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Mashud's 50
goes in vain as India clinch a narrow victory |
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Pradeep Ramarathnam
The first One Dayer between India and Bangladesh
ended with India beating Bangladesh by the
narrow margin of 11 runs. It was a close, nail
biting game decided only in the last over.
Bangladesh ran India mighty close. Really? Ahem.
Not quite. The truth was that Bangladesh
didn't look like winning the match at any stage.
After dismissing Ganguly, Tendulkar and Yuvraj
by the 12th over, Bangladesh let the grass grow
from under their feet. And with the mid innings
crawl in the Bangladesh innings, defeat was all
but imminent. Khaled Mashud's 39 ball half
century only helped in gilding the pill. The
damage was done long before. India blooded two
debutants in this game, Haryana All rounder
Joginder Sharma and the dashing wicket keeper,
Mahendra Dhoni. Sridharan Sriram made a welcome
return after a gap of four years. With Joginder,
who has two first class hundreds, slated to bat
at as low as number 10, India elected to test
their strong batting line up first. Ganguly
strode to the center with Sachin Tendulkar,
reviving memories of their halcyon days. Two
balls later, Ganguly was back in the hut,
aimlessly chopping a Tapash Baisya delivery back
on the stumps. Tendulkar struck a couple of
meaty blows before edging a Nazmul Hossain
incutter back on to his stumps. The impressive
Hossain was to end up figures of 2 for 39.
Yuvraj had his all too familiar issues with the
slow wicket and was almost out caught and bowled
off Baisya, before departing to a dubious leg
before decision for 21. At 45 for 3, this wasn't
quite the lazy Chittagong stroll it was supposed
to be. Dravid, unencumbered by the keeping
duties today, began the rescue mission with Kaif
in tow. The middle of the innings was boring,
with 57 singles and six twos in their 128 run
partnership, but absolutely essential, much like
credits at the end of a movie. The tempo was
picked up around the 36th over, when Dravid
began unveiling his own private brand of
unorthodox sweep shots. Kaif, the undisputed
cock of the walk today, also joined in the party
by hammering a few full tosses to the fence.
However, a glut of wickets at the end put paid
to India's hopes of any real surge at the end.
Dravid fell for a fine 53. Sriram and Dhoni
followed soon after, Dhoni run out for a
careless first ball duck. Kaif knocked around
for a few more before patting back a full toss
to the 17 year old Nazmul. The final impetus
came from Irfan Pathan and Agarkar who took
India to the relatively safe score of 245.
Bangladesh began with the right innings, sending
their most underrated player Mohammad Rafique to
open. Rafique promptly dispatched Pathan over
the ropes, but Yuvraj pulled off a blinder at
point to give Bangladesh bogeyman Pathan his
first strike. Joginder Sharma, the other opening
bowler, looked like he was bowling well within
himself, but still managed to keep things tight
thanks to Nafis Iqbal who batted in idyllic
stupor. His 9 off 52 balls was as much fun for
the spectators as watching hair grow. Just
when he had to make his considerable investment
pay off, Dravid ran him out. Second Test hero
Ashraful succumbed soon after to Joginder for
his maiden ODI wicket, and it was down to the
self effacing Habibul Bashar to hold fort. He
added 64 with the promising Aftab Ahmed, before
Sriram lured him with his innocuous looking left
armers. Sriram added Rajin Saleh and
captain Bashar for 65, to finish with impressive
figures of 3 for 43. The rest of the innings was
a fool's errand and though Khaled Mashud sent
Joginder to all corners of the MA Aziz Stadium
in the 49th Over, it was all over bar the
shouting. The Bangladeshis finally
finished with 234/8. The defining moment
was perhaps the sight of Tapash Baishya and
Mashud exchanging high fives after Baishya hit
the last delivery of the match for an
inconsequential boundary. The Bangladesh
Team simply didn't think they could win. It's
time to get down to the bedrock, and analyze the
attitudinal issues of the young team. Dav
Whatmore transformed an also ran Sri Lankan team
to world beaters. He just has to drive home the
point to this team that winning is not really as
hard as the report card of 5 out of 99 shows.
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